STANDING
by Paul Turner

Like scouts at the pledge of allegiance, we Catholics rise to our
feet when we hear the words, "Let us pray." We stand a lot at
church. Of course, we also sit and kneel a lot. Visitors to a
Catholic parish often find that figuring out when to stand and
sit poses a mystery as great as the incarnation.

Standing is key to understanding liturgical postures. A basic
principle to remember is that we stand for prayer. Not everything
that happens at Mass is precisely prayer. We listen to readings,
we dialogue with the priest, we process to communion. But at
certain times we pray to God. Often the priest prays on our
behalf, as in the opening prayer. Sometimes we pray together out
loud, as in the Lord's Prayer. Generally, when we pray we stand.

The largest exception, of course, is the eucharistic prayer. It
is the longest single prayer at Mass and the only one which calls
for kneeling. Kneeling came fairly recently in our history. When
eucharistic piety grew during the Middle Ages, several customs
changed - the faithful knelt for the eucharistic prayer, they
rarely came to communion, and they received it in the mouth
instead of in the hand. Pews were invented; prior to this time
people stood for Mass. The infrequency of communion indicated
that the piety had become exaggerated, so we actually legislated
that people had to receive communion at least once a year.
Although we praised more regular communion, centuries passed
before it finally caught on again. In the beginning, though,
people stood for the eucharistic prayer just as for the other
prayers of Mass because they felt reverent standing, as Americans
do when we pledge allegiance to the flag or sing the national
anthem. A vestige of the earlier posture remains when we stand
for the preface. It's just as much the eucharistic prayer as the
part which follows the "Holy, Holy." Some communities around the
world have maintained the custom of standing for the entire
eucharistic prayer in keeping with the ancient tradition.

We stand for other occasions - the entrance rite, the Gospel, the
Creed, the communion rite and the dismissal, for example. But
ordinarily standing signals prayer.

(This bulletin insert originally appeared in MODERN LITURGY,23:5,
copyright (c) 1996, Resource Publications, Inc. It may not be
reproduced without permission. Send permission requests to
info@rpinet.com)

(Paul Turner, pastor of St. Munchin Parish in Cameron, MO,
holds a doctorate in sacramental theology from Sant' Anselmo
University.)